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FROM CNN’s Jack Cafferty:

Someone is lying. The New York Times dropped a bombshell on John McCain this morning with a front page story that could cost him the White House.

It’s great reading… an improper relationship with a lobbyist, a woman named Vicki Iseman. His inner circle convinced they were having an affair. All happening while he was chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and she was representing clients who had business before McCain’s committee. The two of them together at fundraisers, in his office, aboard private corporate jets. It got so bad his closest friends and advisers finally stepped in to save McCain from himself. This is all according to the New York Times.

Problem with the story is it’s a little “skinny.” Most of it is based on unnamed sources, which detracts from its credibility. On the other hand, the Times byline contains the names of four reporters who were not likely to go to their editors and say, “Look what we’ve got,” if they didn’t have it.

And reportedly as far back as last December, McCain was pleading with the editors of the Times not to run the story.

McCain’s explanation for all of this comes up short. “It’s not true,” ain’t going to cut it. For one thing, McCain has been here before. Remember the Keating 5 and the savings and loan scandal?

And it’s highly unlikely the Times information from McCain’s inner circle is all false. You don’t publish a story of this magnitude unless you’re on pretty solid ground. Stay tuned… cause there’s a lot more to come.

Here’s my question to you: How much will newspaper stories raising questions about John McCain’s ethics and his alleged relationship with a woman lobbyist hurt his presidential chances?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

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(PHOTO CREDIT: AP) 

FROM CNN’s Jack Cafferty:

In case you’re not convinced our government is broken, consider this: A new study shows that almost 60% of government employees at all levels — federal, state and local — say they’ve seen violations of ethical standards, policies or laws at their workplaces in the last year. This includes everything from conflicts of interest, abusive behavior, altering documents and financial records to lying to employees, vendors or the public.

And apparently it’s worse at the state and local levels. The nonprofit research group “Ethics Resource Center” found 63% of those at the local level witnessed at least one kind of misconduct. At the state level, it was 57%, and 52% at the federal level.

And it’s going to get worse. The head of this group says it looks like we’re headed toward more ethical misconduct in government in the future, not less.

They found that 30% of the incidents go unreported. One reason for that is some employees who reported misconduct said they experienced retaliation. Researchers also say there aren’t enough systems in place to stop these problems once they’re exposed.

The center says the answer to this problem is what it calls a “strong ethical culture.” A lovely idea to be sure. But when you watch example after example of government dishonesty and abuse go uninvestigated and unpunished, what’s the message? That it doesn’t matter because no one will do anything about it anyway.

Here’s my question to you: Does it surprise you that almost 60% of government employees at all levels say they’ve seen ethics violations at work?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

Read the rest of this entry »